Written with her usual vigor and imagination...Mary Renault has a greattalent.The New York Times Book Review Alexanders beauty strength anddefiance were appare... » 

Written with her usual vigor and imagination...Mary Renault has a greattalent.The New York Times Book Review Alexanders beauty strength anddefiance were apparent from birth but his boyhood honed those gifts into themakings of a king. His mother Olympias and his father King Philip ofMacedon fought each other for their sons loyalty teaching Alexander politicsand vengeance from the cradle. His love for the youth Hephaistion taught himtrust while Aristotles tutoring provoked his mind and Homers Iliad fueledhis aspirations. Killing his first man in battle at the age of twelve hebecame regent at sixteen and commander of Macedons cavalry at eighteen sothat by the time his father was murdered Alexanders skills had grown to matchhis fiery ambition. «